Chapter 50: Antique City

Ring! Ring!

Ring! Ring!

…

Groaning, Hiro shifted on his bed before reaching for the bedside stand, dragging his phone over to check the caller ID.

"Eh? Why is this guy calling me so early in the morning?" Hiro muttered with a hint of annoyance in his voice before answering Vanti's call.

"What is it?" Hiro asked, not bothering to cover up the exhaustion in his voice.

"Our chance is here, Hiro!" Vanti's excited voice drifted over. "Our names are registered on the away game lineup during the spring break! It's such a pity that Zyd didn't make it, but it's our chance to make it into the Group A lineup after the match!"

Hiro felt that something wasn't right, and after thinking about it, he asked, "Alright then, what's the inside story?"

"Haha, you're really smart," Vanti chuckled lightly. "Actually, our school's Group A team had always lost to this high school in the past, and the coach doesn't want to harm their morale because the summer tournament is around the corner, so…"

"So he's sending Group B students just for the sake of formalities, right?" Hiro scoffed.

"Who cares?" Vanti exclaimed, and Hiro could visualize him rolling his eyes.

"It's still an opportunity for us! With my passes and your ridiculous talent, we can definitely bring home a beautiful win. Then, we can rely on the momentum to barge our way into Group A's official lineup!"

Hiro thought about it and felt a little tempted. Sёarch* The ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Furthermore, the expedition went downhill, clearing Hiro's schedule for the spring break.

Although unexpected, it was a welcome surprise nonetheless.

Hiro said that he would think about it before hanging up the call, taking a shower, and returning to his study room.

Inside the study room, Hiro relaxed a little and commanded the system to open a portal to his personal pocket dimension.

The moment the portal appeared, a translucent blue window popped up in front of Hiro.

[Notice: You've triggered a high-priority mission!

[Mission: My Domain

[Mission Briefing: You have acquired both a material dimension and an immaterial dimension. Now, you need to make use of your current resources to develop the pocket dimension into a Domain.

[Hint: Take advantage of your status as the most powerful, intelligent, and resourceful creature in the pocket dimension to establish your authority. You can intimidate, tame, or enlighten the living creatures of the dimension to aid in your mission.

[Notice: You've unlocked the {Enlightenment} feature, allowing you to bestow creatures with intelligence.]

…

Hiro processed the new high-priority mission while checking the new {Enlightenment} ability.

At a cost of one achievement point, it would unlock a creature's intelligence.

At a cost of ten achievement points, it would grant them the intelligence of an infant.

At a cost of 100 achievement points, it would grant them the intelligence of a toddler.

1,000 points is the equivalent of a five-year-old, and 10,000 points for the equivalent of a seven-year-old.

He could even grant them the intelligence of a young adult directly by spending 100,000 points.

Hiro secretly wiped his cold sweat. Just as he thought that earning so many achievement points was easy, something like this happened.

Looking at the portal to his pocket dimension, Hiro hesitated for a moment. He didn't know how many creatures there were because he didn't understand the ecosystem of his pocket dimension yet.

However, he did have a direction for the search.

If he could locate natural treasures, it would be easy to find powerful creatures camping nearby.

These creatures usually dominated the peak of the food chain. Thus, instead of enlightening creatures in mass numbers, he could enlighten the most powerful ones and wait for the snowball effect.

Although he couldn't communicate with the smaller animals, he could leave it to their stronger counterparts.

With that in mind, Hiro's first thought was to hit the antique city, if for nothing more than locating treasures to upgrade the range of his treasure-scanning function.

After making up his mind, Hiro closed the portal and brought out his phone to call Bella.

The call soon connected.

"What?" Bella's hushed voice could be heard on the other end. "I'm in class right now."

Hiro let out an 'oh' and said, "I forgot that you're in class right now; forget it, I was checking to see if you're interested in visiting the antique city with me."

"Teacher! I got an emergency call from home, my mother fainted and is in critical condition…"

Hiro was stunned as he listened to Bella bullshitting her way into requesting a leave from the teacher.

Soon, he heard Bella's cheerful yet somehow evil laugh, and an image of a pink-haired chibi demoness appeared in his mind.

When the noises around Bella died down, she told Hiro that she would be waiting for him at the school's parking lot.

She knew that Hiro bought a house and had a personal driver, even if she remained clueless about what type of house he bought.

Hiro didn't mind, she probably used his driver as an excuse for the teachers as well.

Shaking his head, Hiro sent Sebastian a message to prepare the car while he went to change his clothes.

After communicating with Arabella and learning that everything in the company and the nightclub was fine, he reminded her to ship the first manufactured VR capsule, the S-gear #0 to his mansion.

Less than fifteen minutes later, the car set off for the school.

…

Antique City.

It was called a city, but it was just a district constructed in the scenic area of the provincial capital; all buildings were constructed of natural wood, and no mechanical forms of transport were allowed into this district.

It is said that this was a policy passed down for decades now, preserving the sense of antiquity in the district.

"Aren't you too excited?" Hiro asked, a little confused as he watched Bella hop from one stall to the next.

Most of the 'antiques' on display were old trinkets, nothing worth Bella's attention.

Regardless, she treated them as though they were long-lost treasures.

Well, honestly speaking, some of them were rare treasures in the antique world, as Hiro's system kept detecting buried treasures among the piles of trinkets.

Although Hiro discovered them, he wasn't about to buy them; this wasn't his goal in coming here.

"What do you know?!" Bella harrumphed coldly, but her eyes sparkled with interest a moment later as she picked up an old, handmade plushie doll.

"These things might not be valuable from a profit-oriented market standpoint, but you can feel the care and devotion poured into their creation. These things carry emotions, aspirations, and contentment from the past to our present, and perhaps to a future where neither you nor me exist anymore…"

Bella's last words came out as a murmur, but Hiro could hear her clearly. He hadn't expected this goofball chibi to have such deep thoughts about antiques.

Then again, he could understand where Bella came from. The market can't determine the value of everything in this world.

At the end of the day, sentiment carries the most weight and most precious inheritance.

When Hiro looked at this old town once again and thought back to the government's policies that aimed to protect and preserve it, he seemed to understand something.

This district in itself was an antique passed down from generation to generation, and its value in the eyes of the higher-ups must be astronomically high.

"Haha, well said! Well said, little girl."

Hiro and Bella turned to the side and they saw an old couple standing right next to them.

They were holding onto the hands of a chubby little boy, and the boy had the same look of curiosity as Bella's in his eyes.

Bella's eyes shone as she greeted the old couple. "You think so too, Grandpa?"

Clearly, she was excited to find a kindred spirit in this old man.

The old man laughed and waved his hand, helping Bella straighten up.

"Sigh, only when this old man saw through life and death did I realize the value of sentiment and inheritance, allowing me to let go and return to my family in my old days."

He had a look of appreciation in his eyes and it increased the more he observed Bella's bubbly character.

"My sons and daughters are already too old, so I can only hope to pass down this spirit to the next generation. I can only say that I failed them when they were young, and I don't wish to repeat the same mistake…"

Hiro's sense of awe gradually disappeared, replaced with impatience.

Is this old man going to take all day reminiscing life? I don't have all day…

Seeing that the group of four were chatting happily, Hiro shook his head and wandered off to the nearby stalls.

As long as he was in the same street as Bella, he could keep an eye on her activities.

It's troubling that his scan's range was limited to 10m; he wouldn't have to bother with multitasking otherwise.

Hiro checked the system's encyclopedia for discovered treasures for the current treasure count, nodding in satisfaction.

I've discovered 37 treasures, I only need about 73 more to get the upgrade. Hiro thought to himself.